Protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources: conservation's promise or demise?

Keywords: Protected areas, sustainability, conservation, governance, representations, participation
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 12

Abstract

The global conservationist agenda has set the target to expand protected areas over 30% of the Earth's surface by 2030. Many governments, including Canada and the USA have pledged to achieve this goal. The IUCN and CBD recognise several protected area categories according to their management goals and specificities. If protected area networks have expanded worldwide in the last decades, this has occurred largely through management models which allow for the continuation of traditional resource use while also enabling some resource management and exploitation (namely categories IV, V and VI or protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources). National administrations worldwide report to the IUCN which categories their protected areas correspond to, although they do not use the same approaches or criteria to determine natural resource management. Nevertheless, the stated protected areas according to categories provide a useful database to assess the evolution of global protected areas network. Relying on this database, we ask the question: is the notion of protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources a loophole for conservation or rather the opportunity to mobilise collectivities around clear conservation objectives, regardless of the current state of ecosystems? This question appears crucial as the creation of protected areas compatible with some intensive forms of resource exploitation, albeit sustainable, may weaken the global conservation project, emptying it out of its potential to maintain ecosystem integrity.